Fawzi's story

Fawzi al-Odah is from Kuwait. In 2002, he was taken forcibly and subsequently detained in a US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay.

Up till today, he has not been put on trial for any offences. That is no surprise since there has been no formal charge made up against him. He will just be kept detained until the "war on terror" is over*.

Fawzi alleges that he was beaten up when he was first brought to Guantánamo - that would not be the last time.

Out of a protest inter alia against their detention without trial, Fawzi and 83 others went on a hunger strike in December.

According to Fawzi, the tactics used by US to stop them from carrying on are as follows:-

1. They took away his "comfort items" - blanket, towel, shoes etc.;

2. Then they kept him in isolation** for 10 days;

3. Then they came and threaten to put him on "the chair" if he continue to refuse to eat. "The chair" refers to the metal chair where detainees are strapped on to be force-fed.

He refused - and the US carried out their threat. Fawzi was placed onto the "chair" and liquid food was forced through his nose via a thick tube with a metal edge.

Fawzi said, "They pulled the tubes in and out. If I resisted or tried to take the tubes out, they would strap me down, hold my head back and force the tubes in and out causing a lot more pain. It was useless to resist."

Todate, only 4 of them are still refusing food. Hardly surprising seeing the torture*** they had to endure.

Fawzi complained also of the horrible conditions in Guantánamo - "the lousy food, no reading materials, bad medical care, being in isolation". But he said that that is not the real problem of being in Guantanamo.

"The real problem is being here without reason, without hope, without a hearing. I am an innocent person who has done nothing wrong and I have had no opportunity to show that. ... A fair court with fair procedures is what I have been asking for".

Fawzi says that his health is deteriorating. He longs for death for "(d)eath in this situation is better than being alive and staying here without hope. Death would be better if it helped end this situation."

Read the transcript of the interview Fawzi gave to BBC here.

*According to the International Law of Armed Conflicts, any enemy combatants captured will be detained until the hostilities end. In this case, the US has started a "War against terror" - so technically, the hostilities may not end since "terror" can never be fully eradicated. Can it?

** The Human Rights Commission has stated many times that being kept in isolation is considered a form of torture - mental torture.

***For those who still can't imagine how can force-feeding amount to torture, here is an account given by Attorney Julia Tarver on 28th October 2005 and found in the report submitted by five holders of mandates of special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights who have been jointly following the situation of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay since June 2004:-

“They are being force-fed through the nose. The force-feeding happens in an abusive fashion as the tubes are rammed up their noses, then taken out again and rammed in again until they bleed. For a while tubes were used that were thicker than a finger because the smaller tubes did not provide the detainees with enough food. The tubes caused the detainees to gag and often they would vomit blood. The force-feeding happens twice daily with the tubes inserted and removed every time. Not all of the detainees on hunger strike are in hospital but a number of them are in their cells, where a nurse comes and inserts the tubes there.”